


An Echo through Time

by Twilight_PhoenixFyre



Series: Ripples Trilogy [3]
Category: Tales of the Abyss
Genre: (if the sentiences count as such), Action/Adventure, And I continue to fail at tagging; new tags to be added as I remember them, F/M, Friendship, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Kairi continues to be a menace, Mentally Unstable Gods, Politics, Possession/Mind Control, So do babies, time-travel, war happens
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-22
Updated: 2020-05-01
Packaged: 2021-03-01 23:09:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,994
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23795164
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Twilight_PhoenixFyre/pseuds/Twilight_PhoenixFyre
Summary: The game events are over. Van is long dead, Eldrant still floats high in the sky, and Kairi… is dead again. Or at least, her Doppelganger body is. And, as usual, there's no rest for the wicked.Dragged back to Auldrant earlier than planned, all she can do now is keeping moving forward... and hope that the warnings given to them by Lorelei will be enough. The Sentiences are enraged after three thousand years of imprisonment, and how, exactly, is one meant to fight a god?"The world doesn't need my brand of insanity trying to destroy it. Not with... the miasma at my fingertips.""...This time next year, let's be smiling together.""And every year after?"
Relationships: Asch fon Fabre/Kairi Balfour, Dark Daemione/Natalia Luzu Kimlasca-Lanvaldear, Guy Cecil|Gailardia Galan Gardios/Noelle, Jade Curtiss/Evelyn Osborne|Cantabile, Other pairings in the background, Reighn Aurelius/Mystearica "Tear" Fende, Sync Osborne/Selenia McGovern, The Various Sentiences as Family
Series: Ripples Trilogy [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1704100
Kudos: 1





	1. Chapter 1.1 - The Return

**Author's Note:**

> Alright! Welcome to Book 3 of the Ripples Trilogy! (If you haven’t, you know. Read it on FFnet already because I’m so fragging slow at getting things uploaded across the two sites.)
> 
> This will be updated every six days (once I actually get on my schedule instead of telling it to go burn in hell; first chapter was due the 10th) until it is fully-uploaded (which will be in late January of 2022). By that time, I hope to have finished writing Book 2 of the Lights Trilogy, which means the Future Arcs of An Echo through Time will be in the works shortly after due to the crossover arcs between AEtT:FA and ATS (Lights Book 3).
> 
> That all said... _All Tales of the Abyss characters, themes, and concepts are the property of Namco Bandai. However, all Original Characters, artes, themes, and concepts belong to me or (on occasion) to a friend of mine whom I have already received permission to borrow from. Please ask before borrowing._ (Permission will generally be granted with request for credit given where credit is due.) This is the only time I’m going to put this disclaimer up, because it makes little sense to repeat it every single chapter.
> 
> As with the previous two stories, if you would like to see part of a chapter from another character’s POV or if you would like to ask for a drawing if you’re having trouble picturing something, feel free to ask. I can’t promise they’ll get done snappish, but they’ll get done at some point. Probably before I finish the story completely. (At this rate, probably before I finish the Re:AST cover, which still doesn’t exist as more than a concept sketch.)
> 
> Now that that’s all done... Enjoy!

_“I was wondering why you’d side with Undine and Gnome.” –Shadow_

* * *

**Myre’s POV**

The Soil Tree was dead. Long, long dead now. Had I been looking at it ten years ago, I would have thrown a fit. My grandfather had looked after it, just like my father would have done eventually, a task that would have been passed to my husband, and to either our son, or our daughter’s husband.

But my family was dead. Even the man I’d hoped would become my husband.

Five years ago, he would have stood with me, looked at the tree, and wondered if maybe a new one could be planted once this war was over.

Five years ago, he’d led a group to find supplies in the Inista Marsh. The behemoth had attacked. Four of the group of twelve had escaped, two with heavy injuries. One of those had eventually died from his injuries.

The man I loved hadn’t been among those to make it out. He’d died in the muck.

“Myre.”

Which was where my name had come from. My new name. The girl I’d been before that was dead, had died the day Luke fon Fabre had walked up and told me my lover was never coming back.

I turned to look at the man walking up behind me. If I hadn’t known better, I’d have thought it was the redhead who’d told me my dreams were shattered.

Luke was dead, too. He died saving Amethyst Curtiss. Thys lost his father to that particular attack as well. Almost lost his mother.

 _Did_ lose his mother, a year later. The nine-year-old, a fonic genius like his father and a master of the Sigmund style like his mother, was already becoming one of our best front-line fighters. Seth, his only remaining family, had done his best to shelter the boy originally... The problem was, most of the group who’d saved Auldrant from Yulia’s Score was now dead.

The redhead who stood beside me now wasn’t Asch, either.

Asch had never made it past eighteen. He’d died before Thys was born, before they even found out Cantabile was pregnant. His body rested in the muddy, oily lake that surrounded the remains of Baticul.

“You’re thinking rather hard.”

I didn’t reply for a while, eyes raking over the crumbling city before me. It was _dangerous_ to be walking around in the open like this. Dangerous to be on the ground. Gnome ruled the ground. Sylph, who was neither ally nor enemy, did not begrudge us Eldrant, our flying haven. Rem did her best to heckle us, but she was the weakest of the sentiences, and her opposite and the eldest of her brothers, Shadow, was on our side.

As was the youngest of the seven.

“How much longer do we have, Lorelei?”

Indeed, the redhead beside me was Lorelei, whom we had given a replica body so that he may assist us. Shadow, too, walked about in a replica body, though it was born of an odd mixture of an adult Jade’s replica data and Dark’s, who was a replica to begin with.

The result had black hair, red eyes, and a bad habit of sneaking up on people.

I’d found it funny as a child.

It was a useful tool to my adult mind.

“I’m not sure. I do know that we’ll need to leave for the Absorption Gate soon, though.”

I sighed. That was about as much information as I ever got out of him anymore. He didn’t like giving precise times, or even looking for them. Then again, given what had happened with Yulia and her Score, I didn’t blame him.

A quiet rustling drew my attention, and I raised my mace.

The monsters jumped out from behind the ruined buildings, and I snarled as I ran forward, mace slamming into heads with a deadly accuracy I’d trained into myself over the years. There was no room for mistakes, not anymore, not when one slip-up could spell death for you and the rest of your unit.

There was no such thing as a civilian anymore. Nor a noncombatant, really. There were front-liners, scouts, artillery, medics, and children. The children contributed when they could with what they were capable of using, or looked after the infants too young to help.

The children never left Eldrant. And none of them remembered the world as it was under Yulia’s Score. None of them remembered what Auldrant was like before this war started.

A war we humans were slowly losing, despite everything.

A third human jumped into the fight, rapier glinting as he helped us kill the monsters. With his help, it didn’t take us long to defeat the last ones.

I turned to look at the newcomer and frowned. He was going on forty-five... and what was he doing all the way out here?

“Aslan? You’re a few continents away from where I’m sure you’re supposed to be.”

He turned, sheathing his sword as he did so. “Kyrie and Jozette went with the unit I was originally assigned to... Her Highness made the exception this once.”

I sighed. Her Highness... Not Natalia, oh no. She’d died holding off a horde of monsters with Dark. Dark hadn’t survived that either. Nor did that title apply to Nephry, who had, for about a year, been married to Emperor Peony. She’d never recovered from the stress during childbirth, and had eventually succumbed to illness. He’d been left to raise their daughter on his own...

Aslan was speaking of Princess Anubia. Eight years old, but almost as intelligent as her cousin Amethyst. She held the highest position in Eldrant, with her father having died from being poisoned by a monster a few months back.

“Why?” I asked. Anubia was stubborn, and usually refused to break up the units she sent out.

“Because I promised your father I’d watch after you... And I’ve done a terrible job of it so far.”

Lorelei looked concerned. “You do understand that I can only send one person back? You’ll be stranded at the Absorption Gate, because I won’t be able to re-form for a few weeks at the very least.”

Aslan nodded. “I know. Shadow agreed to come get me once you’d left.”

I crossed my arms. “Assuming our jump doesn’t immediately erase this timeline.”

Lorelei shook his head slowly. “No. This timeline will exist until you find some way to make certain this war ends. And I will warn you now, Myre... I know you, and understand your reasons. The me you are bound to meet in that time will have _seen_ you, but will not _know_ you. He will not aid you as I might.”

I scowled. “None of them are going to want to help me.”

Lorelei nodded. “Perhaps. But you never know... Kairi always showed a very interesting understanding of the world around her.”

“A world that wasn’t her own.”

“No. The world she _chose_.”

“She _never came back_ ,” I pointed out. Aslan sighed. I didn’t exactly blame him. This was a very common argument between us.

“Rem never gave her a chance.”

Ah, yes. Rem’s barrier. This was, supposedly, the reason why she was so weak. But I’d never had any proof of it. Only a desperate Asch, who had been trying to dreamwalk to her—or something like that, at least—had been able to feel it.

That I knew of. Perhaps the others had also tried. Either way, the result was the same: a world at war with the creatures that kept it alive, and no Kairi.

“And how do you suggest I get Kairi here before Rem erects her invisible barrier?”

Lorelei looked amused, this time. “The same way she was drawn to Auldrant in the first place. Ryndor knows what her mindscape feels like. He should be able to find her again... especially so soon, given when you’ll be landing.”

I nodded, and Aslan sighed. “What?”

“Nothing. Just... try not to mentally scar yourself, okay?”

It took me a moment to figure out what he was talking about. Then I tilted my head to the side, faintly amused. “That would be difficult. I remember being rather difficult to mentally scar.”

Aslan scowled. “And yet...”

“I’m not scarred,” I said, knowing that expression far too well. “Just... as frozen as I used to dress. I’ve lost too many people to be anything else.”

“It’s time to go,” Lorelei said. I nodded, and Aslan stepped forward so that the three of us stood in a triangle. I closed my eyes and focused. Lorelei needed to conserve his energy, so I’d be the one to take us to our destination.

My memory of the Absorption Gate was somewhat fuzzy, but one location was perfectly clear, kept so by stubborn will and regular visits.

I rarely actually got to see what this looked like. I knew Lorelei’s ability—and Luke’s, before his death—always surrounded him in a golden-orange glow before spreading to encompass everyone he’d be taking with him.

Mine supposedly looked like one of Kairi’s Energy circles. Luke had claimed it looked _exactly_ like the one that had teleported her and Asch to Aramis Spring, but I never put much stock in that. Luke hadn’t actually seen it himself, and it had been almost two years before I’d discovered this ability. There was no possible way to be certain... Except to ask Kairi when Ryndor dragged her back to Auldrant.

She’d wanted to stay for her birthday, supposedly.

Too bad. The fate of my world was more important than her birthday.

The familiar drain of energy came as the glyph activated, teleporting me, Lorelei, and Aslan to the Absorption Gate.

Del and Apathy were waiting for us. Or, to be a bit more correct, two puppets. They’d ceased to be Del and Apathy a _long_ time ago.

I frowned. “You’re not going to try to stop us are you?” I asked.

Del stood up, and I felt a rather acute sense of déjà vu as he drew his claymore. Unnaturally pupil-less blue eyes almost seemed to bore into me, the evidence of Undine enslaving him. I looked over at Apathy, and saw similar red eyes.

Odd. Undine and Ifrit only worked together when they were desperate.

I glanced at Lorelei, and waved him back. Aslan was strong enough to survive this long, and Shadow was supposed to be coming. No reason for him to waste energy.

Not when we so desperately needed him to send me back.

Apathy ran straight toward me, and my battle-oriented mind ran over what it knew in the seconds before he was within striking range of my mace.

Martial artist. Preference for first and fifth fonons. Specializing in power attacks. Habit of slipping behind an enemy.

Undine and Ifrit had placed them here to stop us, but those two were spread far too thin to be able to really control them. Apathy’s attack patterns would be the same as they’d always been. So would Del’s, which meant he was all Aslan’s to deal with for now.

I fell into a pattern easily. Swing, swing, Devastation, jump back, swing, and so on for a while. I waited patiently until I felt something snap into place.

Finally. I had the strength for a Mystic Arte. Now then...

I spent the next few minutes gathering up fonons and focusing them into a very specific point in my body, right below where my Energy Core would be. I waited for a while as I monitored the levels of fonons I’d drawn in.

I jumped back, spun on my heel, and let loose a shockwave—not of fonons, but what we’d come to call Æther. It wasn’t fonons, or Energies... Really, Æther was to fonons what fonons were to Energies. It was something we’d learned to synthesize... the final step required releasing the fonons we’d captured in a short burst. The Æther would then swirl around us for a few minutes before dispersing back into the fonons that had made it up.

We’d had no choice but to evolve. Æther was our answer to the way the sentiences used fonons against us. I just hoped having this knowledge sooner would make stopping them easier.

“Countless heralds of ice, seek the end of your journey!” I chanted, the Æther I’d synthesized answering my silent commands with the same ease. “Comet Fall!”

At the last second, fire surrounded Apathy and Del both.

My Mystic Arte struck Del. Weakened as he was by Aslan’s attacks and the swapping trick Ifrit had pulled, his replica body finally succumbed to its damages. Not even Undine could hold him together any longer, and I saw her control waver as Del fell to his knees.

Déjà vu threatened to overtake me again, but I brushed it aside.

Del looked up at me, then slumped to the ground, fonons splitting apart easily. I glanced over at Apathy.

Odd. He wasn’t moving...

I turned to face him completely, and was greeted by a rather startling sight.

Apathy’s right eye was still the unnatural, pupil-less red.

The left eye was blue.

“Path?” Aslan whispered. I didn’t really believe what I was seeing, either.

“Yeah. Long time, no mess around, huh...?” He paused. “Was what I heard true? Have you really changed your name?”

Right. Apathy had been one of the first casualties. And given his previous fixation on names... Yes. Yes, I could believe this was the replica of Avarice Miles speaking to me.

“Yes. I go by Myre.”

Apathy looked saddened. “Your birth name was so pretty...”

“Ifrit had a reason for giving you this much control, I’m sure,” I said. He sighed and nodded, and I’d have sworn his right eye almost glowed for a moment.

“Ya know why Gnome and Undine are so upset, righ’?”

I nodded. Though, why Ifrit always spoke in such an odd manner, I didn’t dare question.

“Ah neva cared. The humans saw the damage Gnome could do an’ did what they thought was necessary ta keep it from happenin’ again. Ah know ah’m dangerous, ah ain’t gonna deny it.” Ifrit paused, frowning and glancing to where Del _had_ been. “Ah love causin’ a little chaos here ‘n’ there. But this... Gnome, Undine... They’ve gone too far.”

He looked up at me. “Ah’ll take bein’ sealed again, if that’s what it takes. But ah don’ wanna see the world keep spinnin’ ta its doom like this.”

“Because fire is chaos... and life.” Ifrit, Lorelei, Aslan, and I all turned as Shadow walked over. He crossed his arms and gave his brother a look so reminiscent of Dark’s ‘you’re an idiot’ look that I _almost_ cracked a smile. “I was wondering why you’d side with Undine and Gnome. Rem was obvious—she never liked humans anyway. You... You used to _love_ humans.”

Ifrit looked away. “Still do.”

Shadow snorted and looked over at me. “Get going. Undine is _beyond_ pissed right now.”

I rolled my eyes. What else was new, with her?

Lorelei led the way down to where the Planet Storm seal had been once.

“It’s time...” he murmured.

I nodded and stepped to the edge.

* * *

**_Fun Fact:_ ** _Ifrit was hanging around in my head when I got into my Transformers fix. Ifrit decided he liked Jazz. Ifrit now attempts to mimic Jazz’s chosen speech patterns. Curse you annoying characters! Especially you, Ifrit! You were supposed to have a Spanish accent! Not a Brooklyn accent! –dies- At least Gnome cooperated..._


	2. Chapter 1.2 - The Return

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Behind schedule as usual. –sighs-
> 
> Had to give this chapter to Shandon to look over because the mini-Shandon in my head basically wrote all of this herself. Also, lots of hints to the spin-off, for those of you looking for that... (Re:ADL, fyi.) So she added some stuff and it’s a bit longer than average.
> 
> Double-update today to get caught up, and then the next update will be on the 5th.
> 
> Enjoy! (This’ll be the first and only really humorous part of Chapter 1, and there’ll be some lighthearted parts around the festivities in Grand Chokmah before everything goes to hell in a handbasket. Just saying.)

_“You know, this conversation was actually_ easier _to follow when you were speaking in liger.” –Mom_

_“‘Cause Rabecah told me about a certain colonel who, and I quote, ‘floats majestically through the air’ in a factory.” –Shandon_

_“You are about as decisive as the bobblehead gnome in the kitchen.” –Kairi_

* * *

“Kairi?”

...

“Kairi...”

...

“Kairi!”

I growled something I desperately hoped was impolite in the liger language.

“Are you cursing at me in liger again?”

Something more like a grunt than a growl was my answer.

“Noted. So, have your memories worked themselves out yet, or nah?”

A groan-growl.

“What do you mean ‘sort of’?”

Grunt. Growl, growl.

“Okay, my liger’s not _that_ good. On that note, are you planning to speak liger all day?”

A pause as I considered the question. An irritated hum-grunt.

“Thank God. I mean, I don’t mind the practice, but this probably sounds like a _very_ strange conversation to your mom.”

“It does,” Mom piped up as she walked past the door. Probably to get a cup of coffee.

“Ooh, are you getting coffee?!” Shandon asked, apparently seeing what I’d heard.

“You don’t need any,” Mom nixed immediately.

“Aww...”

Hmm...

I yawned and sat up, going from mostly-asleep to wide-awake almost faster than Shandon could blink.

Almost.

I hum-growled.

“Well, I’ve got a PlayStation 3 and an Xbox 360, so if you want to play a Tales game other than Tales of the Abyss or Tales of Legendia, we could go hole ourselves up at my house,” Shandon offered.

I hummed. Then... “Nah. I’m kinda in the mood for Legendia. Besides, if I want to play Symphonia, I’ve still got Sarah’s GameCube version. I don’t need the PS3 for that one.”

“Unless you want to run around with Sheena dressed up as Judith.”

“Nah. I’d rather have Kratos in his Judgment getup.”

Mom poked her head in. “You know, this conversation was actually _easier_ to follow when you were speaking in liger.”

I snorted, then busted up laughing along with Shandon. Mom walked off, and Shandon leaned back on her hands and looked over at me. “So, what are we gonna do?”

I shrugged and scooted over to my laptop, opening it up and watching it boot up. “You are going to pick a Tales game. I am going to take care of Tea’s poor abandoned Sylesties.”

“You have her account password?”

I snorted. “Please. Tea and I know _all_ of each other’s passwords. Tends to happen when you use the same four passwords for everything and rotate through them,” I said. “Mind you, Tea can’t type any of mine because, as I’m sure you’ve noticed...” I paused and exaggerated typing in my computer password, which was about twenty characters long, “I have really long passwords. Most of which contain at least a name, a made-up word, a real word, and a number. Not necessarily in that order.”

“Right. And Tea can’t type real well.”

I gave Shandon the stink eye. “Tea does this.” I proceeded to poke in her password for her Sylestia account using just my two pointer fingers.

Shandon just laughed a bit more and then was silent. “So, what’s Danté up to?”

“If my doppelganger is to be believed? Still chatting it up with Noishe.”

There was silence for a moment.

“Kairi Balfour’s front and center again?”

“Our conversation in liger didn’t answer that question?”

“Stupid question, moving on to the next one. How fresh are the batteries in your camera?”

I paused and glanced over my shoulder at her. “Should be good for a while. The SD card’ll run out of space before the camera batteries die.”

“Excellent! We’re playing Tales of the Abyss then. ‘Cause Rabecah told me about a certain colonel who, and I quote, ‘floats majestically through the air’ in a factory.”

I’m not sure if it was the memory of actually sitting here with Rabecah, _watching_ that happen, or just my own memories of Jade and my overactive imagination trying to figure out how that would work out... yeah, nope.

I busted up laughing, and was still at it five minutes later (okay, at this point I was hyperventilating, but that was normal) when Mom poked her head in again.

“Do I _dare_ ask?”

I shook my head, while Shandon shrugged. “I’m not sure _I_ want to know,” she admitted. “I just mentioned something about Jade floating.”

Mom gave me a look as I finally caught my breath, still grinning like an idiot. I snorted. “It’s a bit of a glitch. Instead of his character ‘jumping’ back when the pipe falls, he just sorta floats up and backwards to safe ground. Rabecah saw it and now it’s just one of those _things_... Right up there with the Abyssman costumes.”

She rolled her eyes and turned to leave. “Don’t forget to make the mac’n’cheese.”

I grinned. “Might end up making it and leaving it in the fridge for you.”

“And make some cookies while you’re at it.”

“Will do. See ya tonight.”

The dogs started barking as Mom walked through the kitchen, and I turned and went back to dealing with Tea’s Sylesties. She’d be so surprised when she came back to find almost all of her Mission pets at level 60. (That was what I was aiming for, at least.)

Not to mention the sheer amount of gold she’d have.

Was this why she’d asked me to babysit them for a couple months?

“So, what did you mean earlier about your memories?” Shandon asked as she unburied my controllers for the game systems, since _all_ of them were buried. I frowned and accepted all of the mission satchels.

“I think my doppelganger saw something. She’s hiding it from me now... Anyway, everything up to about a month ago I’ve got fully lined up, and my Auldrant memories are in perfect order again, so now it’s just a matter of getting the rest of the memories Doppel’s hiding,” I admitted. Something crashed, and Shandon immediately started yelling ‘I didn’t do it!’

I snorted and stood, leaving my room. “Nope. Marley got in the trash again.”

“Oh... Okay.”

Getting Marley out of the trash and then getting the trash picked up again didn’t take very long, thankfully, and I was able to get back to my room rather quickly... just in time to see which Tales game we were _really_ playing.

“You are about as decisive as the bobblehead gnome in the kitchen,” I noted.

Tales of Symphonia.

Not Legendia, like I’d originally said. Not Abyss, like Shandon had said when she brought up Floating Jade.

No. _Symphonia._

“Yep. We’re gonna play from a new game and you’re going to point out everything you think Danté’s going to screw up.”

I couldn’t help it. I facepalmed.

“Sound a little _more_ cheery, why don’t you?” I muttered.

“Okay!”

“No! No! Do not take my sarcasm at face value!”

Shandon just laughed, and I couldn’t help the grin on my face either. I finished up with the Sylesties quickly and flopped out across my bed, taking the Player 1 controller and starting the new game from one of my finished games.

So I could make Kratos run around in his Judgment outfit, of course.

And, while Kratos was jabbering on about the Giant Kharlan Tree and the Goddess Martel, I gave Shandon a _look_. “You do realize Lloyd is currently five, right? So it’s gonna be at least twelve years before we ever find out what _really_ happens.”

Shandon shrugged. “That just means he’s got more time to screw things up. I mean, look what happened with you! You’d already screwed everything up in just... what, nine months? ...Earth months.”

I rolled my eyes. “Okay, so... Oh, nailed him again!”

“Wait, what?”

I snickered. “Raine just threw a chalkboard eraser at Lloyd,” I said. Just in time for Raine’s ‘How _do_ you sleep standing?’

“Oh, quite easily,” Shandon replied cheerfully. Yeah, that’s Shandon for ya. “So... you think Danté might stick close to Iselia?”

I shrugged. “It’s _Danté_. Not Dark. I don’t know him quite as well, so I can’t say.”

Shandon scooted back, grabbed my laptop, and scooted forward. “Let’s say he _does_ stick around Iselia... when he’s not off killing people for money, that is.”

I frowned and thought about it as I dealt with the opening scenes. “He wouldn’t come back all that often. He doesn’t have a liger to ride around anymore, there are Desians _everywhere_ , and I can’t imagine _finding_ work is all that easy. He’d also have to do a lot of traveling just to get to the people he’s going to kill and back to the clients.”

“So, using Iselia as a home base?”

“Most likely. Noishe would be an added bonus,” I agreed. “Ugh, finally!”

Raine ran out of the classroom, and Lloyd’s buckets disappeared, leaving me free to run around.

“So Danté’s still an assassin, working alone, and using Iselia as a base of operations,” Shandon summarized as she typed.

“Please tell me you’re not doing that in a Word document.”

“OneNote. Listed with your Ripples stuff under the name Dying Embers,” she said.

“Change it to A Dying Light and we’ll be okay,” I said. “Speaking of dying, shall we wait for the priest to come die in the schoolhouse or should we head for the temple _now_?”

“What?! No, go to the temple! Don’t traumatize the poor children!”

I snorted.

“Yeah, yeah, laugh it up.”

Well, I finally got them out of the schoolhouse. Now, on to the conversation with Frank and then the ever-so-annoying battle tutorial...

“So, where do you think Danté would get pulled into the story? Or, where’s the most likely place?” she asked as I dealt with the zombies. I thought about it as I performed the rather mindless task of mashing the A button.

“Kratos is gonna jump in here at the temple...”

“Before or after the priest dies?”

“After. Actually, if his timing were any worse, Lloyd would be dead in the first ten minutes of gameplay... Ten minutes only because of the annoyingly useless scenes and tutorials,” I replied.

“That’s game logic for ya.”

I cringed. “Sorry, Shandon, game logic doesn’t always work that way.”

She gave me an odd look, then seemed to realize just _what_ I was talking about. She hummed for a moment. “So, where would Danté jump in?”

“...I can see it going one of two ways. He’d either be hired by the mayor to protect Colette before the game events even start and therefore would join the party properly during the ‘Rescuing Lloyd from the ‘Desians’’ mess, or... Well, I can’t imagine Yuan being happy about him running around, so he’d probably be sitting in a cell when Lloyd got captured for aforementioned mess.”

“So, not for a while yet.”

“No.”

“What if he trained Lloyd?”

I let my head fall. “Shandon. Danté is an assassin. Danté uses guns. Danté _really doesn’t like dealing with people._ ”

“...Point zero zero zero one percent?”

I shook my head. “Hey, there’s the dead... well, dying priest.”

A moment later...

“Wait, where’d the dead priest go?”

I shrugged. “Game logic. Auldrant rationalizes it as fonons separating. I guess... here it would be mana dispersing?”

“But he just vanished!”

I rolled my eyes. “What, did you want to do an autopsy or something?”

“...Maybe.”

I groaned. This was going to be a long few hours of gameplay...

We finally decided on a ‘background’ for Danté and decided on how he’d join the party (hired by the mayor), and from there, it was actually fairly amusing. Shandon had _no_ clue what Danté was like, so most of her ‘suggestions’ were _way_ off (though I could see Dark doing most of them, so that didn’t surprise me much) while I spent most of my time coming up with whatever I though Danté might _say_ in response to certain lines in the game.

Though, Shandon and I agreed on one major thing.

Danté and Kratos would _not_ get along. At all.

We finally quit for a while to go do the cookies Mom had asked for. Well, quit playing Tales of Symphonia and writing things down at least.

“You do realize it’ll be twelve years before we’ll be able to confirm or deny any of this, right?” I asked for what had to be the hundredth time. Shandon just grinned.

“You’ll remember about it. And then you’ll call me and remind me. And I’ll probably be as excited to find out as I am making the bets now.”

I rolled my eyes. “We should get Sarah and Rabecah in on this. They’re the ones that got me into Tales of Symphonia in the first place.”

Shandon nodded and walked over with the eggs and butter, while I found a country station on the radio and started blasting it.

It didn’t take long for me and Shandon to get to dancing around—carefully, because we _really_ didn’t want the buffet to fall over, not with all the glass in and on it—and singing along. Sugar cookies were easy to make, and I hadn’t been able to relax and have fun like this for quite some time.

The doorbell rang as we put the last batch in the oven, and I headed out to see who had come by.

Rabecah.

Who had picked up another spirit Energy and a Talent to go with it. I smirked.

“Speak of the devil and she shall walk the four blocks from Sarah’s house to mine just to see what Tales of Symphonia has to do with anything.”

She smirked. “Yep.” She stepped inside. “So?”

I rolled my eyes and closed the door before walking back to the dining room and turning the radio off. Because _someone_ doesn’t like country. “You know how I was on Auldrant? Well... I may have thrown a new wild card into Tales of Symphonia.” I paused and turned to look at Shandon. “You know, it’s also very possible Danté could never get involved at all or could die before the game events start.” I pretended not to notice Shandon ‘sneaking’ back over to the stereo system as I turned back to Rabecah.

Shandon’s voice sounded rather suspicious, though. “I really get the feeling he’s gonna get involved. If for no other reason than to beat Kratos upside the head.”

Rabecah raised an eyebrow, though whether it had to do with Shandon or her statement, I wasn’t totally certain. “Danté is an assassin, isn’t he?” I nodded. “He better not _kill_ Kratos.”

I smirked. “Kratos or Mithos.”

She looked _so_ torn.

“Wait, who’s Mithos?” Ah, Shandon has been successfully diverted temporarily. Now, to slip over here and turn the volume _back_ down...

“He’s my baby...” Rabecah said somewhat creepily. I gave her a look.

“I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again. Your ‘baby’s an asshole.”

“I know!”

Shandon laughed... And then turned on the stereo. Which, while it did start blaring country music again, wasn’t blasting our eardrums out as she’d intended. Rabecah glared at it while I smirked at Shandon, who was giving the stereo the most betrayed look. I poked the button to turn it off again. “Shandon, you are the only one of my friends who’s actually read the later chapters of A Spatial Tear. You really think you can slip past me after the hell I put the Intelligence Division through?”

She just shrugged and went in to get my iPod. While it was also primarily country, I had a playlist filled with everything that _wasn’t_ country... or Disney, for that matter. Rabecah would be more pleased with the song selection.

That little divergence dealt with, we finally finished with the cookies and started on the mac’n’cheese. A full batch instead of the half-batches I usually make. It was nice, having my Earth friends around again.

While we were waiting on the mac’n’cheese to bake, Shandon and Rabecah went back to betting on Danté, while I decided to work on my Harry Potter fanfic for a bit, since I’d finally gotten everyone to Diagon Alley and back again.

They were on the train now, with Rhyme chatting up the Weasley twins...

You know.

I find a deep sort of irony in the fact that I’m never writing Tales of the Abyss fanfiction when I get dumped into Tales of the Abyss.

And, just like the first time, it took me all of about two seconds to start cursing.

“Son of a half-chirpee, slag-eating, heartless _witch_!”

* * *

**_Fun Fact:_ ** _Kairi’s cursing there at the end brought to you by three rather distinct fandoms- Tales of the Abyss (or any Tales game, really), Transformers, and Kingdom Hearts. Yup. Count on Kairi to curse across three fandoms upon landing on Auldrant. Though, this time she’s got a bit more reason to be cursing than when she landed in the snowdrift..._


	3. Chapter 1.3 - The Return

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That Kairi is talking to an inanimate object in one of her quotes really ought to make you wonder about her sanity...

_I did have to move about three hours in when I discovered that my ‘high-tide safe spot’ wasn’t so high-tide safe... –Kairi_

_“Okay. Water and ice it is. But I’m foisting you off to someone else as soon as I can get Silver Clematis back, got that?” –Kairi_

_“Rabecah... If your Talent works across separate worlds, let it be known that I blame you for this.” –Kairi_

* * *

Once I stopped cursing, I forced myself to my pained, _bare_ feet and stumbled out of the disaster zone I’d landed in.

I laid down carefully and slipped onto the second plane, using Energies to carefully remove all of the glass-like shards that had embedded themselves in my feet and back.

Last time, I’d landed in a snowdrift.

This time I’d landed in a bunch of... I’ll say quartz for now. It didn’t feel like quartz as I fought to make the Energies and fonons separate and disperse harmlessly, but then, it didn’t feel like _anything_ I was used to.

Once my feet and back were clear of the shards and healing (or healed, in the case of my feet), I dropped back into my body, _stabilized_ myself, and promptly passed out.

When I woke up again, I quickly became _acutely_ aware of the lack of noise around me.

No music. No people breathing. No tree branches rustling. No animal sounds.

Nothing.

I pushed myself up slowly and glanced around, finally registering the destruction around me. From the low light, I’d guess it was about five-thirty. Sparse grasses and short trees and shrubs met my eyes. So did the mountains on one side, and the ocean on the other, just far enough away that I couldn’t hear the waves. I was next to a cliff face, on a rocky beach.

My only indication that this was Auldrant? The fonons.

I walked into the mess of shattered crystal and lifted one of the medium shards of it, raising it to the faint light.

Blue.

I glanced down at myself. Gray tank top. Black spandex skort.

I bit my lip and continued looking around. I was unarmed, wearing clothes that were only barely appropriate for fighting, no shoes, and not quite sure where the hell I was.

Not good.

I dropped the piece of crystal, then started picking my way through the mess. There was so much of the crystal all over the place... Some of the already-questionable trees were dying, large shards sticking out of their trunks in multiple places. Two had been knocked over completely by Beta-liger-sized chunks.

The piece I’d grabbed to double-check color had been about golf-ball size.

There was one piece still in the crater that seemed to be the epicenter, though. That one was about as big as Twilight, Sorylle, and another five Alphas put together... or at least, I guessed it was. It was half-buried, so it may well have been larger.

I stepped on a long shard and immediately stepped back. Checking to make sure I hadn’t cut myself, I lifted the shard.

It was about sword-length. And this stuff appeared to be more than strong enough...

Just to be sure, I spun around and threw the long, thin piece at one of the larger chunks that had knocked down a tree.

It bounced off harmlessly, neither piece even _scuffed_ by their meeting.

I breathed a soft sigh of relief. Well, there was my weapon problem solved, though it would probably take most of the day to force that shard to look more like a blade than a piece of blue glass, but there didn’t seem to be many monsters here. Most had probably been scared off by whatever caused this very _solid_ crystal to break apart...

As I picked up what would become my sword for a little while again, I couldn’t help but look around some more. All of this crystal...

_Firelight through the trees. Moving shadows, too big to be just from the fire. Too tall and thin to be any of the monsters in the area._

_I groaned as the person carrying me readjusted his grip, moving me into a very uncomfortable position as we went._

_“She’s waking up,” the man announced, almost boredly._

_Familiar green hair stepped into my fuzzy line of sight. Sync?_

_“That won’t matter for much longer.”_

_No. Zion._

_We stepped out of the trees, and I glanced around the clearing._

_Then I spotted it._

_Levi’s ‘fonstone’._

_Huge, and green, and transparent, and making the firelight reflect oddly._

_Ryndor dropped me against the crystal, and I felt something_ pulling _me..._

I swallowed hard and glanced around again.

So much crystal... Could this have been another monolith? It couldn’t be the one I’d been strung up against so much like a sacrifice. That one had been green, and had been in a forest, not on the edge of an ocean...

I picked my way out of the disaster zone, heading for the water. It was nearly winter for upper-hemisphere Auldrant. And while it was cool here, it wasn’t freezing yet. Honestly, it felt like it had on Earth, though it had been unseasonably warm there.

When I reached the water, I warily dipped a foot in... and immediately pulled it out and ran back up the pebble beach a ways. Cold. Very cold. Which meant I was either in Northern Rugnica, Northwestern Padamiya, or Central-Southern Aberria.

Except I knew better than to think this was Northern Rugnica. We’d been there before, when the ice bridges came from Sylvanna and the ligers made the crossing. I’d spoken to Twilight about it, anyway. That entire corner of Rugnica was covered in sand beaches, not pebble beaches.

Southern Aberria could say the same, with a few exceptions around the south-western (Belkend) area where the cliff faces dropped straight into the ocean.

So, I’d have to assume this was Northwestern Padamiya.

Which, if I was right about the blue crystal being a shattered monolith, made a sort of sense.

Gnome was sealed in the middle of a ring of mountains.

So Ifrit would be sealed near Mt. Zaleho. Right?

I glanced down at what I intended to make into a temporary sword. _‘I hope you don’t mind this, Phaïe.’_

Well, I supposed there was nothing for it. I found a spot on the beach where I didn’t think I’d get wet at high tide and got to work, smoothing the crystal down until I had a flat sheet.

I did have to move about three hours in when I discovered that my ‘high-tide safe spot’ wasn’t so high-tide safe, but otherwise, I did my best to ignore my grumbling stomach. I’d have to find something to eat eventually, and probably sooner rather than later, but this was Auldrant, and I didn’t dare go anywhere without a weapon.

The final result of my labor was definitely identifiable as a katana.

Okay. A blue, glass-looking katana.

But it was a sword, and judging from the ease with which I’d cut through a few shrubs, it would more than suffice.

So, weapon in hand, I started walking down the beach, heading toward the mid-afternoon sun. Mt. Zaleho and the surrounding dormant volcanoes made going east a foolish move. Especially if I wanted to get anywhere in any amount of time.

It didn’t take long for me to start seeing and hearing monsters again, and I was grateful for it. The silence had been getting to me.

Especially since I was still carrying proof of something I didn’t really want to admit.

Gnome was free. Ifrit was free. How many others had Gnome gotten to already? Because I had no doubt that Gnome was responsible for Phaïe’s monolith having been shattered as it had.

Six days had passed. My birthday was still four days off. Four days.

I kicked a pebble lightly, trying not to injure my toe in the process. I succeeded in not injuring myself, but the pebble didn’t go very far, so I picked it up and threw it as hard as I could instead.

It still didn’t go very far, but watching it bounce was satisfying, and brought me back to my dilemma.

Where would the other four monoliths be? Phaïe’s and Syal’s were both destroyed already... Undine and Myno would probably be somewhere in Sylvanna. Sylph and Alvess? ...Possibly the Meggiora Highlands? But then, where would Rem and Shadow be?

I thought back to the passage rings and the flows of fonons and Energies, and realized I was wrong. Havaam’s monolith, and therefore Rem, would be in the Meggiora Highlands. Sylph and Alvess were likely in the desert somewhere.

As for Shadow... I’d never _seen_ any place with a high concentration of first fonons. But then, I hadn’t been everywhere in Auldrant yet. So Shadow was a bit of a wild card, when it came to finding the monolith.

That said... Well, Doppel had seen what Luke had been shown and told. Shadow would be our ally. So I wasn’t as concerned about him.

And Rem...

Wait.

The cities had been destroyed mostly by earth, fire, and water. And the monsters... Rem should have been able to do more than just strengthen monsters, right?

And why hadn’t Sylph helped as much? The Soil Tree falling could have been partly her fault, as could the sandstorm that helped Undine bury Chesedonia in mud.

A squawk caught my attention, and I glanced up just in time to see the garuda-class monster diving at me. I jumped and rolled, and the monster screeched as it hovered for a moment. Then it flew at me, and I scowled, running forward and spinning into a Guardian Field.

My Guardian Field turned into a Guardian Frost for the first time since I’d started using it, and I raised an eyebrow at a bit of ice that had formed and not quite disappeared before pulling together fonons for a Raging Blast.

Frigid Blast killed the monster, and I hummed. Okay. So I guess all of my artes with water fields of fonons are going to automatically turn into the field of fonons mutation?

Another monster attacked me a few moments later, and I decided to use a Havoc Strike.

What came out looked more like Sorylle’s Glacier Stream than Burning Havoc, but it was obviously a FoF mutation.

I glanced down at the sword I was carrying again and warily put it off to the side before charging at the much-weakened monster. Kick, kick, Raging Blast—hey, that actually came out right!—kick, kick, Havoc Strike...

Monster killed, I stopped and looked over at the innocent-looking blue katana again. I sighed and picked it up. “Okay. Water and ice it is. But I’m foisting you off to someone else as soon as I can get Silver Clematis back, got that?”

The sword didn’t respond. I hadn’t expected it to, really, I just wanted something to gripe at. I don’t mind water. I love water. But I love fire more. I don’t like ice as much.

Ooh... Ice...

Keeping the idea I’d just gotten in mind, I started walking again. Monsters attacked here and there, and I did my best to unleash every strike arte I had on them.

Demon Fang, which usually turned into Infernal Torrent, suddenly was unleashing a shard of homing ice that exploded either after about ten yards or on impact. That one was actually kinda fun to play with.

Havoc Strike unleashed a sort-of Glacier Stream when I landed instead of me being engulfed in fire as I made the move.

Raging Blast had always turned into Frigid Blast, but now Guardian Field was turning into Guardian Frost. My DelQues was still a ZelDelQues, as well, since it usually needed a water FoF anyway. Though, my teriques had gone from a brilliant red to a sort of purplish color...

Without a bow, I couldn’t test any of my bow artes, though I was experimenting a bit with Final Cross—or rather, Final Glacier—since I’d asked Guy about it once and then never gotten around to trying to learn it before.

It wouldn’t come out right, though, so after the fifth or sixth failure, I gave up and started practicing my fonic artes.

The only difference between my body when I’d left Auldrant and my body now was my clothing.

Or lack thereof, given that I was _still_ irritated about being barefoot... and my tanktop was falling apart now anyway from a garuda monster getting a little too close. My Earth clothes weren’t designed to withstand Auldrant fighting.

I had the terrible feeling I was going to be wearing little more than rags by the time I found civilization again.

“So, the first time this happened, I almost froze to death. Now whatever pulled me here is trying to embarrass me to death? Or was the point for me to get killed by the monsters?” I muttered irritably. A group of chirpees attacked, and I let off an irritated Guardian Frost as they surrounded me.

The chirpees didn’t last long. That was one of the nice things about Padamiya. Most of the monsters were pretty weak. I sighed. “Rabecah... If your Talent works across separate worlds, let it be known that I blame you for this. It was your fault I was so inspired the night I got dumped in Keterburg, and it’s your fault this time for showing up at my door.”

I had no clue whether or not she could actually hear me, and at that moment, I didn’t especially care. I also didn’t _really_ blame her. I was just going a bit crazy from having no one to talk to, so grumbling at Rabecah made for an acceptable solution.

By the time the sun set, I was getting very sick of chirpees—and very sick to my stomach. I knew how to hunt, Asch had taught me how to skin an animal, and there was plenty of driftwood, or other dead wood, that I could use to make a fire, but there was just one problem.

This strip of beach? Had no animals on it. Just monsters. And monster meat was tough, stringy, and a pain to get my hands on, anyway, when their fonons separated so quickly.

I laid down on my back and groaned softly. This was going to end badly, I just knew it.

“Chirp?”

My eyes shot open.

That wasn’t a chirpee.

I spotted the bird easily. Not very large, but at this point, _anything_ in my stomach was _something_ in my stomach. And my lack of a bow wouldn’t be a problem either, as I reached out to the earth Energies in the area, carefully manipulating them into a loose sphere around the bird. My lack of physical movement hadn’t alarmed it, so it was still just sitting there on the branch.

I forced the Energies to condense quickly, and the bird chirped again, this time in alarm, before it fell off the branch, hitting the ground and remaining motionless.

Dead. So now all that was left was to clean it up and start a fire.

I smiled in relief as I picked up the small animal. This would hold me over until morning. Hopefully I’d find more tomorrow. Or, better yet, I’d find Daath Bay tomorrow. I could definitely use some shoes.

My fire burned blue that night as I fell asleep easily.

* * *

**_Fun Fact:_ ** _You know how Kairi made that sword there? Yeah. Food for thought._

_On another note, I hope you’re all having fun watching Kairi play around with the icy FoF mutations._


End file.
